The 'Corrupt Bargain' election decided by the House of Representatives (1825)
No candidate won an electoral majority in 1824; Clay's backing made Adams president and Clay became Secretary of State
US Presidents · 19th century
John Quincy Adams
1767–1848 · American
Democratic-Republican (later National Republican and Whig)
In office: 1825–1829
John Quincy Adams, the 6th president and son of John Adams, was a brilliant diplomat and Secretary of State who shaped the Monroe Doctrine. He won the disputed 1824 election in the House of Representatives amid accusations of a "corrupt bargain", served a frustrated single term, and then spent 17 years in the House fighting the gag rule on anti-slavery petitions.
How to spot them
- ▸Son of the 2nd president; the first son of a president to become president
- ▸The 'Corrupt Bargain' of 1824 with Henry Clay
- ▸'Old Man Eloquent' in the House of Representatives after his presidency
- ▸Argued for the African captives in the Amistad case before the Supreme Court (1841)
In office
The 'Tariff of Abominations' (1828)
Protective tariff bitterly opposed in the South, leading later to the Nullification Crisis
Proposal for a national observatory, or 'lighthouses of the skies' (1825)
His ambitious first annual message calling for federal investment in science and internal improvements
Defence of the Amistad captives before the Supreme Court (1841)
Post-presidency; won freedom for Africans who had seized a Spanish slave ship
Campaign against the congressional 'gag rule' on anti-slavery petitions (1836–1844)
Post-presidency; the gag rule was finally repealed in 1844
Quick-fire facts
- •Born in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts; lost the 1828 election to Andrew Jackson
- •As Monroe's Secretary of State he negotiated the Adams–Onís Treaty and was the main author of the Monroe Doctrine
- •The only former president elected to the House of Representatives, where he served from 1831 until his death
- •Collapsed from a stroke on the floor of the House in 1848 and died two days later in the Capitol
- •Like his father, he did not attend his successor's inauguration
- •Reputedly swam naked in the Potomac early in the morning
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- Miller Center, University of Virginia — John Quincy Adams